Gone with the wind: £2m Pagani roadster sold out before Geneva motor show debut

The niche Italian supercar maker says producing this convertible is the hardest thing it has done

CHOPPING the roof off a car doesn’t, on the face of it, seem a particularly complicated task – just ask any firefighter. However, according to Horacio Pagani, founder of the Italian supercar company that bears his name, removing the roof from the multimillion-pound Huayra has been the most complicated thing he has ever undertaken.

The hard work appears to have paid off. This is the new Huayra roadster (pronounced way-rah, and named after a god of wind), looking as glamorous and exotic as its £2m price suggests it should be.

The new model will make its public debut next month at the Geneva motor show, where the great and the good take a break from skiing and gather a stone’s throw from the shores of Lake Geneva to take their pick of the world’s most expensive cars.

Just 100 examples of the Huayra roadster will be built, and the company says all have already been sold – even though it costs more than twice as much as the Huayra coupé.

The monocoque chassis is made from carbo-titanium and other hi-tech composites, and Pagani claims the roadster is almost 80kg lighter than the coupe, at 1,280kg, and its structure is 52% stiffer.

Buyers get two roofs for their money. The first is a carbon-fibre top with a central glass section, which is removable but can’t be stored in the car. But don’t worry if you’ve left it at home and it starts raining, because the roadster also has a fabric cover with a carbon frame that is stored on board.

Its twin-turbo 6-litre V12 engine develops 754bhp and drives the rear wheels via a seven-speed sequential manual gearbox. The company has still to release performance figures for its new model, but expect it to accelerate from 0 to 62mph in a shade over three seconds and boast a top speed of more than 220mph.